Religion and Punishment - What did I do wrong?

I'm having a bad day. I have CRPS, otherwise known as RSD, Causalgia, etc. but basically it means that my entire body is wracked with constant agony. The pain from this condition is ranked at a higher level than any other condition or injury, as the spinal cord and brain actually change to facilitate and amplify pain messages. It also affects the bones, veins, skin, muscles, the CNS, SNS and Limbic system. This condition will not kill me, it just makes me wish I was dead. There is no cure and no effective treatment.

My question of religious people here is this: What sin am I being punished for? Am I being punished, or given an opportunity? For those who believe in reincarnation, am I paying for past-life transgressions? For those who don't, what did I do in this life that warrants this punishment?

I have my own beliefs that have squared this issue, but what if it happened to you, how would you see it?

Any thoughts are appreciated, and if this seems a little too self-examining.. well, iI am having a VERY bad day.

Hey man I'm sorry to hear about that.I hope you cheer up!

That being said i think this is whatever you want it to be.You can use it as a lesson or stay stumped in sorrow and call it a punishment.This is of course a ton easier said than done.

Btw I'm not saying your slumped in sorrow,just can't think of a way to word it different.


I wish you luck in life,Keep your head up bud.

Karma is usually not understood correctly. Karma is not a punishment for previous bad deeds, but just a path you take spiritually, bad or good is irrelevant, only experience is relevant. At same time people attract similar things, so someone who does bad may attract similar to him/her and if that person is aware stuff they did is bad, they may attract some more of it as a "punishment". It's not easy to understand concept, but simple interpretations or scares in terms like karma is similar to hell are not correct and historically used just to control people. Similar to hell/heaven concept.

Your condition is not a punishment, don't worry about that. Maybe it can be even cured. Some people report it goes away with time, which is encouraging. It means body can get rid of it. Check out this thread at Curezone, maybe they have some more info. Use search feature too, since site is huge with a lot of sub-forums. Let me know if i can help more. Check out RIFE Frequency List just in case there is something there.

EDIT: Check out watercure, find RSD on the left (scroll down) and read about it. It looks very promising!

[edit on 14-7-2007 by sb2012]

if I have kids, and well, decide to drink the money away instead of feed them, well, the kids, who a basically innocent are gonna suffer, aren't they. hopefully, mom will have enough of a conscious to want to end their suffering and change their ways.

our actions harms others and God would not be helping us by protecting us from our own stupidity would he. sometimes I think he just lets the consequences of our actions come back and hit us sqaure in the face. everybody choses to throw a ton of toxins into our environment on a daily basis, these toxins are causing a wide range of diseases. maybe yours is one of these. I just don't think that God is gonna go out of his way to protect us from getting disease from the pollution we chose to create, or protect those we care about from getting them. the diseases are just a warning that proceeds far worse calamities. maybe is we suffer enough from these warnings, we will take more incentive to do something that will prevent the more horrible stuff.

I'm glad you have found a way to come to terms philosophically with such a painful disorder. In answer to your question, despite being what I would describe as "spiritual," I do not personally ascribe to the belief that suffering is deserved or earned (except, perhaps, in the case of self-infliction, but I would even consider that debatable because so many things influence actions and emotions,) but rather lean toward the notion that suffering is a consequence or result of disparate factors.

I say the above merely to stay on topic, however, as my main reason for posting was simply that I wished to say: I just happened to see this thread, and I'm very sorry you're suffering. I can only hope that some means of treatment or cure will be forthcoming. I am always sorry to find that anyone suffers, particularly as the result of something so beyond anyone's control, and I sincerely wish you the best. I believe anything is possible, including cures for incurable afflictions. My thoughts are always with anyone suffering anywhere for any reason.

Thankyou all for your kind words. I think Sb2012 came closest to how I personally feel about things.

In a way, ultimately, I am luckier than most. As I do believe in reincarnation, and karma, I see what I am going through as an opportunity. According to Buddha, you can only grow through suffering, and the greater the suffering, the greater the opportunity for growth. Not many of us will be free of attachments to the life we are currently living when the time comes to leave it. I, on the other hand, will be glad to face the next stage of my journey, and maybe I will be able to demonstrate to my family and friends that death is nothing to be scared of.

Despite the pain I am in, I am fully aware that there are millions of people who are worse off. I would much rather suffer than see someone I love suffer, and I have had a full life up to this point whereas millions of children will sufffer and die before they have had a chance to experience life and love.

I was really hoping that a few of the Christians would contribute to this. I don't want to cast any aspersions, but I'm truly curious about the Bible's stance viz suffering and original sin.

what is Original Sin....i dont recall that being in the bible, other than travelling preachers making these items up to create guilt.


Suffering....it is part of the fabric we live within. Nature is a tough environment, from Chaos come order.
Mass extinction create the opportunity for the rise of mammals...we dont like destruction, but Nature depends on it to maintain forests, create oceans, rivers, canyons.
From the explosion of stars comes all heavy metals, from volanic pressures diamonds are formed.
Within this context exists suffering.

Originally posted by KarillaThis condition will not kill me, it just makes me wish I was dead.

"Oh! It’s not worse, eh? Ok..."

ahahaha, I could not stop laughing at this quote. You have a good sense of humour at least.

It’s too bad that such conditions that you suffer exist; however I’m not going to pity you or try to pretend to know the pain you experience, because I couldn’t possibly imagine.

I’ll just say one thing, if God exists, I will revenge your pain (and everyone else’s) in the afterlife when I destroy him. God shall fall and justice and peace will replace this tyrant.

I wish you well…

LurkerBeast

While I think that some rare people are punished in ways like this for sins, the vast majority who suffer from conditions like yours have done nothing wrong. There could be any number of reasons you are suffering. I haven't endured what you are going through now, but I've gone through my share of troubles. Some I think are God's way of testing us, and making us stronger if we overcome them. Some are just bad luck, like when my grandma fell down the stairs a few years ago and broke her hip. Sometimes it comes from the mistakes of others, like if a drunk driver kills a friend.

You mention that you were looking to hear from Christians. I don't know if that means you are one or not. In any event, perhaps some passages in Ecclesiastes might help. There's a bunch in there that basically says what I said above, that chance and fate sometimes deal us a rough hand in life, and that it isn't our fault, not caused by good or evil acts. It is, for better or worse, part of life.

I have never heard of your condition and so know nothing about it, but I hope that you find some relief from it, if possible. What you describe, I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Have you tried to use mariuana to ease the pain? Im serious. Wouldn´t hurt to try...
www.rsdalert.co.uk...

[edit on 17-7-2007 by finallianstallion]

[edit on 17-7-2007 by finallianstallion]

I am sorry to hear of your suffering. It must seem discouraging to think that nothing can help heal you. However, I don't believe your suffering is caused by any sin you have committed.

HallbergRassy mentions "original sin". The bible does tell of Adam and Eve and how they disobeyed God when under the influence of the serpent they ate the fruit of the tree that God had forbidden. They were living in the garden of Eden at that time. Everything was perfect. God evicted them from the Garden because of their disobedience and into this world. This was the original sin.

This wasn't the last word from God. He then sent his Son, Jesus, to this world. By accepting Jesus as our Savior we can overcome the original sin and our own personal weaknesses.

This world is not perfect. We do have "free will", but then again every person has "free will" and someone else's "free will" can harm me. The diseases of the world can be caused by the foolishness of humans. The earth itself is stretching and blowing constantly. This is the real world we live in and we do suffer from these natural disasters also. We are not in the garden any more.

I do not believe that God is punishing you for anything you have done. You are just living in the world of today. I do believe that belief in God can help you to live with your suffering. It is also said that when we offer our suffering for the good of the world it helps others. And, as you have said previously, suffering can help us to grow spiritually.

DragonsDemesne had a good post. Many valid points were made, probably much better than my small contribution.

I do not believe in reincarnation. You should pray for healing. Some of the other posters here in this thread have offered suggestions where you may look for help. God doesn't want you to suffer. God can and always will bring good out of bad if we let Him.

FinalStallion - Yes. It is the one thing that makes life bearable. The MODS mmight get miffed at mention of illegal substances, but should it really be illegal for chronic pain sufferers?

I am out at the moment, have been for two days, and that is purely because it is illegal. Not fun.

Thanks very much for the suggestion though, and the link, and not in a John Lear kind of way , I mean it!

Thankyou also to Mahree, and Dragonsdemesne, I am not a Christian, but I am truly curious about Christianity but have also had some... insensitive comments made by a Jehova's Witness regarding the condition. As with so much else, there is a certain amount of interpretration made by a follower of any religion. The interpretation made says more about the person than the religion.

[edit on 17-7-2007 by Karilla]

Somewhere it is illegal, somewhere it isnt. So I dont know whats the MODs view off this but Im glad I was able to give you that link.

P.S. Grow your own...

On the subject of medicinal marijuana, here in Canada it is legal in some very specific cases, but the red tape you have to go through to get it is very thick, or so I've heard. I'll let you make your own decision on that, assuming you even live in Canada or somewhere with access to it.

Sorry to hear about your condition, on the other hand you are being punished buy the religious people/mentality. If it wasn't for religion holding science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake we would have been hundreds of years ahead now and we most likely would have a cure for your condition.

You are truly better off than some like the blind the deaf, people without limbs, I know that hope is born of suffering. All I know to tell you is that God tests us all, and Jesus said Anything, yes ANYTHING is possible through prayer, and if you just take that step of faith to just put your trust in the Lord Jesus, believe that he died for our sins, believe that he is the son of God put to the cross for our sinful nature, once you believe these things my friend, and you pray asking for help I gurantee you that you will get results, you believe in Karma right now i take it?

Well if you were being punished by God the commandment you have been breaking is the 1st one, "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me" Well right now your God seems to be Karma, my friend the wage of sin is death, let God wipe the tears from your eyes, he Loves you but you have to love him too. If you have more questions I will try and answer.

Karilla, God probably doesn't exist so can I offer some real hope by telling you that it will be only a matter of time before science can cure you? (or at least let you be rid of the pain your condition causes you)

Please check this link out but bear in mind that it could be years before there's something to remedy your own particular pain as this technology and others like it are still at a very early stage.

www.designnews.com...

It also recently occurred to me that there is an incident in the New Testament, where Jesus and some of the disciples pass by a blind man. The disciples ask Jesus, "Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered that neither the man nor the parents had sinned. Bad circumstances are not necessarily divine punishment. Most often, I think, they are simply bad luck.

You did nothing wrong.

You have, however a series of karmic debts to play out. You may also be here just to help others play out their karmic debts.

Lose the guilt. Guilt kills people.

Free yourself from the dogma, it is not from the light. The light does not judge, however, your deeds determine your karma. If you are conscious of that, then that is a step in the right direction. Whatever you have in your aura is what is. Your aura will have things coming in and going out. It is for your development. If you are suffering for others then that suffering is also for your good. Within your soul group, there are many who needed you to help them. I understand in times of illness, it may appear that you are being punished.

You are not your experiences. You are not your circumstances. Sometiimes it may feel as though everything is going wrong, that isn't the case. It is just what it is and you are experiencing it for a deeper reason.

If we consider Edgar Cacey, his theory would suggest you have within this life, something to overcome. Like perhaps, if you are having problems with the movement of your body, it may mean something as simple as you did not trust in a previous life? Perhaps you looked at someone and they were sick and you wondered what it would be like to experience that?

It really could be as simple as that.

Kiniesiology maybe helpful to you. It may give you some answers or understanding.